ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals know there are high expectations as they enter the 2026-27 campaign, but ultimately, know that success will be earned, not given. Especially in today's NHL.
Following a disappointing 2025-26 season and a busy summer that saw the team add the likes of 30-goal scorers Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, among other key additions, Washington now has one of the deepest teams the organization has seen in years and one of the most highly-anticipated for this coming season.
"It's a new year. I think we're all excited to try and get things started on the right foot," Logan Thompson said. "Clean slate. So let's get in there and try and play Washington Capitals hockey."
This year, "Washington Capitals hockey," depends on quite a few factors. One of course, being size, with D.C.'s roster being the largest in the league and featuring nine players over 6-foot-4.
"I feel like we're not going to be fun to play against," Aliaksei Protas laughed.
Protas, along with Tom Wilson, also explained that it'll take more than size and the team on paper to lead the team to success.
After all, the group knows it'll have to put in work to translate the skill and talent they have on paper to the ice, and that ultimately, their 60-minute efforts over the span of the new 84-game season will be what determines whether Washington can return to the playoffs and make noise as a legitimate contender.
"It'll take hard work," Protas said. "Size and everything we got in here, it's not going to win the Stanley Cup. But the hard work does, so we have to leave it all every game."
"Expectation only gets you so far; you got to play the game," Wilson added. "We believe in this group. I think when you look at the team on paper, we know we can be dangerous. That being said, you got to go play the game. It's a long year, we got to start building day by day. If we do that and we do our job properly and everybody buys in and we have a good identity throughout the whole season, I think we'll put ourselves in a good spot. But no one's taking the league lightly."
The key to that, Wilson stressed, will be consistency, starting with two strong outings in a difficult back-to-back against the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning to kick off the season.
Washington will start the year with the new-look lines it deployed on the first day of training camp, which did some damage in its preseason dress rehearsal and looks to continue finding chemistry as time goes on.
Alex Ovechkin, who was injured in the preseason but is healthy for the start of the year, said that he liked what he saw from the group in the exhibition games, but noted that the regular season is a different beast, and it'll take every player on the roster to get the team off to a good start.
"We'll see, we'll see how it goes. How I said right before the training camp it's nice to have that kind of depth and options," Ovechkin said. "If you ask any questions to anybody, the start is very important for us. Mentally-wise and we not gonna have easy schedule at the beginning... it's going to be a good challenge."
Ultimately, though, looking ahead, the optimism in the room is easy to see as the Capitals, who have established a good balance of veterans and rising stars, look forward to a new chapter.
"I think the sky's the limit," Anthony Beauvillier said. "The potential is there, obviously the talent's there, we just gotta go out and work and be hungry to get to the playoffs and go from there."
